REGISTER WITH PETROLICIOUS

Remembering USSR-Era Cars through Advertising Photography

by Petrolicious Productions / 15 Nov 2013

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, car ownership in Russia has tripled and that has brought a larger interest to the vintage car culture. We love the look of these vintage advertising photographs featuring Soviet-era cars such as Ladas, GAZ Volgas, Izh 2125 Kombis, and ZAZ Zaporozhets.

The strong and affordable trademark Lada was created as a joint venture between Italy and the Soviet Union, and these cars are still very common in Russia today. Big, sturdy Volgas were created to replace the GAZ Popeda and were a symbol of a higher social status. Aside from being driven by wealthy Russians, these Volgas were typically used by KGB officers and taxi drivers. The Izh 2125 Kombis were small family cars based on the Moskvitch 412 and were built in the Izhevsk Machinebuilding Plant, which also happened to produce Kalashnikovs, cannons, missles, and other guided shells. Zaporozhets cars were the most affordable option for Russians, and these cars are still warmly remembered as the Russian "people's car".

Pawel Skrzypczynski

Wow! Cool subject. I remember many of these cars from my childhood. My favourite one is the Volga (image) and the Lada (image). You can find some more shots of such cars and Polish ones from communist era on my site PESfoto.

Zak

Wolfgang Gullich

I love Soviet-era cars. A lot of [amazingly] interesting and more than a few bad designs. The Czechs always seemed to do it right though with Tatra and Skoda. Both companies managed to put out attractive and reliable machines with decent performance under their Soviet overlords.

As to the Zappo, it was a blatant copy of the NSU Prinz4 but had the coolness factor of its engine also being used as the started motor for the T-72 Main Battle Tank.

Eddie Relvas

As a diehard fan of the 124, I'd obviously plump for the Lada. I love the styling, simple and discreet yet quite functional and elegant. But I find the ZAZ endearing.
In fact, I like the 124 series so much I've just bought a '68 Fiat 124 Familiare (the station wagon) for my collection. It will keep my 124 Spider company. Maybe someday I'll be able to add a Coupe to the fold again (I've had two in the past).

JB21

Very interesting... Historically interesting at least. I've driven Volga whatever once, and that was one of the most unfortunate automotive experiences. They were flat out awful. In every which way. Still, the awfulness of the cars themselves aside, or because of it, it is a very interesting article indeed.